


In the Lab of a Panther

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Category: Black Panther (2018), Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 01:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13823940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive in lab full of amazing things, and are found by Shuri.





	In the Lab of a Panther

“Oh, now this looks promising,” the Doctor said as he stepped out of the Tardis into the large white, black, and silver room. He glanced around, seeing devices and bits of technology on tables. “Obviously a technology lab of some sort,” he told Sarah as she came out to join him.

 “Just your scene,” Sarah remarked.

 “Anyone about?” the Doctor called out. After a few seconds, he shrugged. “No one about.”

 “Just as well. I doubt just anyone is allowed in here without proper clearance.”

 The Doctor looked unconcerned, as he went to the nearest table. “Probably.”

 Sarah shook her head from affection, and made her way over to the large floor-to-ceiling window. Outside it looked like a huge cave, with glowing blue mineral lines in the rock. The surface under her feet suddenly changed, and she looked down. She nudged at the material with the toe of her shoe. “Why would you have a pit of black sand in the middle of this?”

 The Doctor glanced over to her, a set of small clear devices in his hand. “No idea, but I’m sure there’s a fascinating reason for it.”

 Sarah nodded, and continued to the window. “So, you know where we are, yet?” She pressed a hand against the glass and looked all around.

 “No idea. But this level of technology is quite advanced from your time.”

 “It’s so beautiful…” Sarah breathed, looking down and seeing how far down the cave went. Then she noticed a train system above, the wheel-less trains near-silent as they passed by. “Amazing…”

 The Doctor joined her at the window. “This looks like some sort of mining operation. Judging by the enormity of the space… we might be inside of a mountain.”

 “A tech lab inside of a mountain…” Sarah continued to stare out the window.

 The Doctor put down the devices in his hand, and looked around the space. “Hm… the decorations look African.”

 Sarah turned to the Timelord. “Somewhere in Africa, then?”

 “That would be an appropriate guess.”

 Sarah pulled herself from the breathtaking glowing cavern outside to walk around the lab. “I could definitely see you working on experiments in here.”

 “Yes, it is a rather nice aesthetic.” The Doctor went to another table and picked up a bracelet of large round beads, with blue lines of the same colour as the mineral outside.

 “Maybe you shouldn’t play with anything,” Sarah advised. “We don’t know what’s dangerous and what’s not.”

 The Doctor didn’t respond, and smiled at the glow from the bracelet bead he squeezed slightly between his thumb and finger.

 Sarah stuck her tongue out at him, then went over to a set of three male mannequins. One had a black full-body skintight suit on it, with its head covered by a black helmet designed to look like a wildcat. One was bare. The last had nothing except a gold coloured with spikes designed to look like predator teeth necklace. “This is pretty.” She called out to the Doctor, “What do you think a necklace is doing in here?”

 At the lack of answer, Sarah turned to where the Doctor had been, and didn’t see him. “Doctor?” She took a few steps from the mannequins. She looked to the Tardis, and decided he wouldn’t have gone in and closed the door without telling her first. She sighed, “Doctor…”

 A roar suddenly went off near Sarah’s ear, and she cried out and spun to see the face of a wildcat with four sharp teeth in dark wood. Then she saw the bright blue eyes in the eyeholes and the mane of curly hair around the mask. “You brute! Don’t do that!” She swatted the Timelord’s chest with the back of her hand. A toothy grin was the response, which Sarah wasn’t sure made the mask more or less frightening behind the carved sharp teeth.

 “Nearly gave me a heart attack.”

 “Oh, I doubt that.”

 “You know what I mean.” Sarah stepped back, and held a hand to her mouth to stifle a little laugh.

 “What?”

 Sarah pushed the Doctor towards a full-length mirror. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be a lion.”

 The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, tilted his head in consideration, and made some snarling motions and growling noises with his mouth. “Maybe not, but it still works.” He took off the mask and went off to put it back where he had found it.

 Sarah went back to the mannequins, and picked up the gold necklace. If the Doctor could put on a mask, then there couldn’t be any harm in her getting a closer look at a necklace. She glanced back over to the man, who was once again inspecting various things on the tables. She heard him mutter, “Completely sound absorbent…” and decided to put the necklace on. If he was going to scare her like that, the least he could do was tell her this looked nice as a sort of apology. It didn’t go with her outfit, but no matter.

 “Doctor, what do you think of-“ Sarah stopped at the sound of the sonic screwdriver. “Do you really think that’s a good idea in here?”

 “Just testing something, Sarah. Don’t worry.”

 Sarah crossed her arms, deciding to wait to show him the necklace until he was done with hopefully not blowing them up. She wandered over to a small half-open circular chamber that had a table in the center, and a hexagonal pattern on the blue walls. She laid her hand on the table, and her eyes widened as information appeared on the walls, looking like heart rate, blood pressure, and other bodily functions.

 “Instant medical display wall,” Sarah called out.

 “What was that?” the Doctor called back, though still clearly engrossed in whatever he was doing.

 “I said… oh, never mind.”

 Then, without warning, Sarah’s clothes and shoes tore to shreds as something rapidly spread and encased her body. “Doctor!” she shrieked as whatever it was covered her face. She panicked, raising her hands to her face to try to rip it off, not knowing if she would be able to breathe. 

 “Sarah!” the Doctor rushed to her side. “What happened?”

 “I don’t know!” Sarah scratched at the sides of her head, desperately searching for a seam or catch to tear it off.

 “Can you breathe?”

 “I-I…” Sarah took a shallow breath, though her hands still searched around her head. The material close to her mouth didn’t seem to actually impede it. She took another, slightly deeper. “I think so.”

 “Good. So you can calm down.”

 “It just-“

 The Doctor took Sarah’s hands. “Just breathe, Sarah.” Once the woman had settled down enough, he asked her, “Does anything hurt?”

 Sarah shook her head and blinked. “I can see. Everything’s clear.”

 “You’ve got a full-face mask on. Your eyes are covered, but you can see perfectly?”

 Sarah nodded.

 “Well, if nothing is causing you pain, I don’t think you’re in any immediate danger.”

 Sarah’s hand gripped the Doctor’s wrist as she took deep breaths to calm herself further. At his wince, she looked down and saw her fingertips digging into his skin and drawing blood. She instantly withdrew and saw the claws at the ends of her black-covered fingers. “Sorry,” she muttered.

 “It’s nothing,” the Timelord dismissed. “You’re okay?”

 “Yeah… What is this thing?” Sarah looked herself over. The black suit with gold accents covered her entire body, and was quite form-fitting, like spandex. Though it didn’t quite feel like spandex. “It’s certainly made a mess of my clothes,” she remarked at the tatters on the floor around her.

 The Doctor took her arm. “Come on, there’s better light over here.” Once he had her leaning back against a table and had started looking for a way to undo any part of the suit, he asked, “What happened?”

 “I don’t know.” Sarah realized her voice didn’t sound muffled through the material. “I was just standing over there when it happened.”

 “What did you touch?”

 “You’re accusing me of touching things? You? Mr ‘I can’t keep my hands to myself.’ Maybe it was something you did.”

 “Well, you must’ve touched something.”

 “I mean, I put on that necklace…” Sarah glanced down and realized that it was the only thing that hadn’t been ripped apart when the suit had come on, and was actually sitting on top of the suit. “It must’ve been the necklace.” Her hands went to it, tugging up and out on it. “Maybe if we can get it off…” It didn’t separate from the material of the suit.

 “Let me.” The Doctor moved her hands aside to look for a clasp or anything.

 “Oh…” Sarah couldn’t help the slightly hysterical laugh. “With all the things you were touching and messing with, and I get trapped in a bodysuit because of a necklace.” At the frustrated sound from the Doctor, she informed, “I slipped it over my head, so there doesn’t need to be a clasp.”

 The Doctor took a step back to look the suit over as a whole. “As far as such suits go, it is quite fetching on you.”

 “Looking for a bright side?” Sarah snorted. She caught sight of herself in a mirror on the table. The mask that covered her face was similar in design to the helmet on the mannequin. The wildcat design also had leopard spots going back from the forehead. “Rather fierce.” She stepped back to get a better view.

 Sarah decided the Doctor was right in that it did look good. “I feel… I don’t know… powerful, somehow.” She looked down at one hand, curling her fingers into claws, the sharp tips glinting in the light. She moved her shoulders. “Nice to move around in, too.”

 “I can’t find anything to make it come off.”

 “There must be something. Maybe-“

 The Doctor quickly pushed Sarah behind him as they turned to the voice that said, “My brother recently announces that we’ll be more open to the world, and already we have spies and thieves.”

 “I assure you, that’s not what we are,” the Doctor responded to the dark-skinned teenage girl, sixteen or seventeen, approaching them with a metal spear in hand. “I’m the Doctor, and-“

 “What are you doing in my lab? How did you get in here?” the girl demanded, drawing the spear up and level at them. Her gaze caught the Tardis. “And what is that?”

 “This is your lab? It’s very impressive. The things you’ve got here are quite amazing,” the Doctor’s tone was friendly.

 “Thank you, though I expect anyone from outside our border would say the same.”

 “What’s your name?”

 “Shuri.”

 “As you can see, Shuri, we’re not armed. And we really are not foreign spies or thieves. I’m the Doctor, and this-“ he stepped aside. “This is Sarah.”

 Sarah awkwardly waved. “Hi.”

 Shuri lowered her spear and looked Sarah up and down. “Never mind how you got into it-“ she suddenly burst out laughing.

 “I fail to see what’s so funny,” Sarah responded, crossing her arms.

 “Is she English and white like you?” Shuri asked through her laughter.

 “I suppose that’s a close enough description,” the Doctor answered.

 Shuri’s laugh only got bigger. “There’s a white girl in a panther suit!”

 “Is this inherently funny?” Sarah replied.

 “Yes!”

 Sarah and the Doctor glanced to each other as Shuri’s laughter subsided. The girl still had a large amused grin on her face.

 “Sorry, sorry,” Shuri sighed. “You are not very good spies or thieves.”

 “Exactly my point,” the Doctor agreed. “So, if you could get this off of Sarah, we can be on our way.”

 “Ah, you will not be going that easily. My brother will be interested to see you before that. He is already on his way.”

 “How nice. I usually like company. Don’t we usually like company, Sarah?”

 Sarah cleared her throat. “A little help, please?”

 Shuri set her spear on a table she passed, determining the pair would be of little threat. “It works telepathically, though how you linked with it… Try thinking the helmet to come off.”

 It took a moment, but the material covering Sarah’s face and head retreated down to the necklace. “That’s better,” Sarah took a deep breath and shook her head. “But what about the rest of it?”

 Shuri pursed her lips. “Not very smooth. Perhaps because you can’t have properly linked with it. You’ll need help getting it completely off, I think. How did you activate it in the first place?”

 “We don’t know,” Sarah admitted.

 “Ah, you can keep it on for now. Besides, I doubt you’ll want to take it off out here.”

 Sarah glanced over to the remains of her clothes. “Good idea.”

 “You said this is your lab?” the Doctor prompted. “Did you make this suit?”

 “Oh yes,” Shuri beamed.

 “It’s amazing work.” The Timelord glanced around at the various devices. “The things you have here make some of mine look like toys.” He waved his sonic screwdriver, then slipped it back into his pocket. “I take it your brother is the leader here?”

 Shuri looked a bit off-guard by the abrupt change in topic. “Yes, he is the king.”

 The Doctor looked to Sarah with a smile. “Her brother is the king, Sarah. I enjoy the chances to meet royal leaders.”

 “You won’t be meeting him.”

 “But you said-“ Sarah began.

 “I was not going to call him unless I knew you were a threat.” Shuri gave a friendly smile. “I believe you are not.”

 “How relieving,” the Doctor nodded. “I do appreciate not being seen as a threat.”

 “You still have questions to answer before I let you go.”

“That’s only fair,” the Doctor nodded. “We’ve been poking around your lab.”

 “Poking around is an understatement,” Sarah remarked. She brought her fingers up to her mouth, but remembered the claws in time before they could touch her skin.

 “But first, I have a question for you,” the Doctor stated. “Where are we?”

 Shuri’s brow raised. “You come here, and you don’t even know where you are?”

 “Happens a lot more often than you might think to us,” Sarah stated.

 “Wakanda,” Shuri answered.

 “Wakanda?” the Doctor repeated. “Hm… can’t say I’ve heard of it.”

 “That’s a rarity,” Sarah chuckled.

 “I’m only seven-hundred-and-fifty, Sarah. I can’t have possibly heard of every place in the universe, or even on Earth.”

 Shuri looked confused, but didn’t ask about the stated age of the man. “Now to my questions.” She pointed to the Tardis “What is this, and how did you get it in here?” She walked over to it and read the words on the door.

 Sarah could see the excitement on the girl’s face. Despite them being intruders, Shuri liked having something new to find out about. 

 “Police public call box? You need a box this big to call for police?” Shuri turned back to them. “I knew the rest of the world was very behind, but-“

 “Things aren’t always what they appear,” the Doctor smiled. “Rather like your gold necklace.” He stepped forward to join her, and Sarah followed. “This is my Tardis. It’s how we got here.”

 Shuri looked at him in disbelief. “You got here in a blue box that’s barely big enough for three people?”

 The Doctor’s grin widened. “Would you like to go inside?”

 “I get the feeling it is not a small blue box on the inside.”

 The Doctor pushed the door open, and Shuri’s eyes immediately widened at the white room beyond.

 “What kind of trick…?” Shuri quickly circled around the Tardis exterior. “Hologram?”

 Sarah grinned at Shuri’s reaction. “Go on in.”

 Shuri took a step inside, and seemed to be disoriented by the sensory experience. 

 “Messed with my head a bit when I first went in, too,” Sarah informed as she and the Doctor followed the girl in.

 Shuri walked quickly around the console room. “It actually is this big!” She put her hand on the console, not touching any buttons. “This is actually here!” She rushed back to the pair. “This is no illusion?”

 “It’s not, I promise,” the Doctor answered, beaming at the girl’s excitement.

 “What does it do? How does it work?”

 “Let’s treat this as an exchange of learning. You’ll tell us about your inventions in return?”

 “Of course!” Shuri turned and saw the interior door. “It’s bigger than this?”

 “You could get lost easily,” Sarah replied.

 Shuri touched a bead on her bracelet as the Doctor began explaining the Tardis.

 

 As they stepped back out of the Tardis, Shuri let out a long breath of wonder. “I can’t believe I have two aliens in my lab!”

 “Oh, I’m not. He’s the Timelord. I’m Human.”

 “An alien and his Human girlfriend, then! Even more fascinating! Your Tardis is just so amazing!”

 Sarah went over to the full-length mirror. “This is my first question for you, Shuri. This is a beautiful suit. What’s it for?”

 Just as Shuri hasn’t been able to hold in any enthusiasm in learning about the Tardis, she held none back as she explained to them the concept of the Black Panther, and her work in regards to it.

 Sarah sheepishly looked down to her black-pawed feet. “I am so sorry if I’ve offended you by wearing this-“

 “I am not offended. It was a mistake, an accident. You two are curious, only natural. T’Challa chose the other option, so this is not the Black Panther suit. Who do you think tested this design before showing them to him? Me.” Shuri grinned. “I still have some improvements to make, but this design is much better than T’Challa’s previous one.” She waved an arm at the suited and helmeted mannequin.

 Sarah nodded. “I can think of one improvement.” She pointed to the pile of shredded fabric.

 “Ah, yes,” Shuri agreed. “Right now the solution is to have a spare set of clothes in the plane.” Her eyes twinkled, with a hint of mischief as she said, “Since you have it on, we can demonstrate some features.”

 “I do always prefer practical demonstrations,” the Doctor approved.

 “You’ll want to put the helmet on,” Shuri advised, going over to pick up her spear.

 “Uh… okay…” Sarah suddenly had second thoughts about being the demonstration, but focused on bringing the helmet back up. Even though she was a little more prepared for it to happen, the way the material, the vibranium, came over her head and face still unnerved her. Shuri approaching with the spear doubly did.

 Shuri seemed to sense the anxiety. “Don’t worry, nothing will hurt you while you’re in that suit.” She gestured for the Doctor to step back. “Now, Sarah, just stand there.”

 Sarah still couldn’t help flinching at the strikes of the spear against her torso, raising her hands to block the first few, until she realized she barely seemed to even feel the metal spear. She could see that Shuri wasn’t exactly holding back her strength much, either.

 “Very impressive,” the Doctor said. He noticed the gold spots appearing against the black where the strikes landed. “How are you feeling, Sarah?”

 “Like I’m supposed to be feeling rather hurt.”

 Shuri backed away. “That should be enough.” She pressed on her bracelet, and a holographic image that looked like a video record screen popped up. “Okay, Doctor, now you hit her.”

 “What?”

 “I doubt you can do any damage that the spear could not. She’ll be perfectly fine.”

 Sarah realized that getting beaten with the spear was not what Shuri was so excited to show off. But, she was curious, and turned to the Timelord. “Go ahead, hit me. You like hands-on experiments.”

 “Alright,” the Doctor agreed, knowing he couldn’t hurt Sarah. The attack with the spear was proof enough of that. “Any particular spot, Shuri?”

 “Anywhere on the torso,” was the instruction. “As hard as you can.”

 “Ready, Sarah?”

 “Go for it.”

 In the second before the Doctor’s palm made contact with the center of her chest, Sarah saw the pure glee on Shuri’s face.

 Then what seemed like a small gold-coloured explosion emanated from Sarah, and the Doctor went flying backwards, to land and slide to a stop along the smooth floor some distance away.

 “Doctor!” Sarah rushed to him. She could hear Shuri’s laughing. “Doctor?” Sarah grabbed the man’s shoulder to push him over onto his back. “Are you hurt?”

 The Doctor shook his head and stared up at Sarah’s masked face. “That is definitely impressive,” he commented.

 “You must forgive me my fun,” Shuri said, walking over to them. The hologram on her wrist was gone. “In addition to a practical demonstration, you can also think of it as punishment for being in here in the first place.” Despite her words, her smile was still friendly and genuine.

 Sarah couldn’t be mad at the teen girl, not really. Neither of them was hurt, and they did come in here uninvited. She briefly wondered what the punishment for that usually was. A night in a jail cell, at least.

 Sarah willed the helmet off before she and Shuri took the Doctor’s hands and pulled him to his feet. The Timelord ran a hand through his hair. “The suit collects kinetic energy, which can be used later for redistribution,” he concluded.

 “Exactly! Now, there’s lots more I can tell you about. Come look at this.”

 Sarah watched the two talking about Shuri’s projects, smiling at the way both of them were so ecstatic and curious. Some of it went over her head, but the parts that didn’t, she joined in the conversations. Shuri really was a remarkable young woman, intelligent, passionate, and playful. It was impossible for Sarah and the Doctor not to like her, despite the trick she had played on them.

 Once Shuri had shown them everything she could, she looked Sarah up and down. “Time to get that off, now.”  

 “Pity,” Sarah replied. “Something like this would be very handy with the situations we often end up in.”

 “I’m sure,” Shuri chuckled. “You never did say how you got it to activate. What exactly were you doing?”

 “I was looking at that blue display wall,” Sarah answered.

 “I was fiddling with one of your communication devices with the…” the Doctor realized for himself what the answer was, now that Shuri had explained the train system outside the lab. “Sonic screwdriver.”

 Shuri’s eyes widened at that answer. “Sonic screwdriver? Let me see.”  

 The Doctor pulled the sonic from his pocket and let the teen inspect it. After a moment, she gave it back and told him, “Use it again.”

 Within a second, the device whirred, and the helmet of the gold and black suit went up over Sarah’s head and face.

 “But you were using it before this activated,” Sarah said through the mask. She thought for it to retreat again.

 “It must be this specific frequency that set it off.”

 “This is valuable information,” Shuri muttered. “So now, we find the frequency that does the opposite. We can start with what the train destabilizers are set at.”

 “Can we do that in the Tardis?” Sarah asked.

 Shuri didn’t pass up the opportunity to go into the Tardis again. This time, they led her to Sarah’s bedroom, and the girl marveled at how much further the interior went. “This is so cool! No one is going to believe me!”

 Once in her room, Sarah found a set of clothes. Shuri told her to stand, and then told the Doctor the frequency of the sonic destabilizers.

 Before the Doctor could use the sonic screwdriver, Sarah requested, “Shuri,  I’ll be stark naked when this comes off, so could you wait outside?”

 “Oh, of course.” Shuri giggled as she went out and closed the door.

 “I told you not to play with that in the lab,” Sarah sighed.

 “Yes, well, no harm done,” the Doctor kissed the woman’s forehead before turning on the sonic screwdriver.

 It took a few tries to find the right frequency, though the attempts did make small transient translucent spots appear wherever the device was aimed.

 Just as Sarah had not been prepared for when the suit had suddenly formed around her, she wasn’t quite ready for when it suddenly retreated up her body back into the necklace. She stood there for a couple of seconds, then took the necklace off and started pulling on her clothes.

 The Doctor turned the necklace over in his hands to get a better look at it as she dressed. “Amazing feat of engineering.”

 “Certainly felt amazing, once I got used to it,” Sarah agreed.  

 When they emerged, the Doctor handed the necklace back to Shuri. Sarah apologized, “Once again, sorry for any trouble we caused.”

 “Any trouble you caused was certainly rectified,” Shuri dismissed. As they walked back to the console room, she asked, “Could I… could you take me somewhere in this? Just one place?”

 “Ah… the Doctor started.

 “The Tardis isn’t exactly reliable,” Sarah elaborated. “Who knows when you’d get back here.”

 Shuri let out a disappointed sigh, but didn’t beg.

 “You have important things to do here,” the Doctor stated. “We shouldn’t take you from it.”

 “I suppose…” Shuri accepted the answer. She gave a teasing grin. “I would also be a third wheel.”

 “Third wheel?” the Doctor looked confused.

 “I’ll explain later,” Sarah replied.

 Once at the threshold between the Tardis and the lab, Shuri stepped out and turned to the pair. “Thank you for coming here. This was so much fun!”

 “Thank you for being a gracious host to two uninvited guests,” the Doctor grinned.

 “You’re amazing, too,” Sarah nodded.

 “I know. If you ever come back, you are welcome.”

 “We wouldn’t mind seeing you again, either.”

 “Goodbye, Shuri.”

 Shuri bowed her head, and stepped back as the Tardis doors closed. The Doctor turned on the monitor, and they saw her bring up the video recording hologram from her wrist, her eyes watching the Tardis intently.

 The Tardis dematerialized with its usual grinding sound. Once they were away from the lab, the Doctor turned to Sarah. “I hope you learned a lesson.”

 “Me?” Sarah made a protesting noise. “What about you?”

 “What about me?”

 Sarah stared at him incredulously, then recognized the mischievous glint in his eyes. She began laughing and swatted his shoulder. “Honestly, Doctor…”

 The Doctor took the woman’ hands and drew her in close, and his laughter joined hers. “Honestly, Sarah…”


End file.
